this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2024
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Leopards Ate My Face
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Marxists didn't sabotage the Democrats, the Democrats sabotaged themselves. Third party voters swayed 0 elections, especially not swing states. The truth is that the Democrats failed to rile up their base, Harris stopped doing what was effective like calling Republicans weird, then shifted to Liz Cheney endorsements to court the right.
The idea that the .1-.5% of votes that went to Stein or De La Crúz swayed an election where Harris handily lost 1-2% at minimum in nearly every swing state caused her loss is laughable. It was not the Leftists making any difference on the election, it was the failure of the Democratic Party and the Harris campaign.
Where was Medicare for All? Where was "Build Back Better?" Where were the solid, progressive policies that encouraged massive voter turnout in 2020 that evaporated in 2024? Gone, from both the campaign and the voterbase.
Whether you identify as a leftist or not, blaming a tiny group on swaying a massive election where non-voters would have beaten both Harris and Trump is silly. Look at the vote counts, the fact is that the Dems failed by their own lack of merit. This is the first time in several decades where a Republican has won the popular vote, the real, material numbers cannot be ignored. They are real, and need to be taken seriously.
I’m generally on your side of this argument but the number of non-voters is hard to quantify yet clearly had a major effect on the outcome, and a lot of the anti-Harris rhetoric from the left demotivated people into not voting at all (as opposed to voting third party). The third party vote counts are somewhat irrelevant to this line of reasoning.
It's important to note that there are 2 possibilities:
Leftists had little influence, and therefore did not impact the election. This is further reinforced by the fact that many leftists did vote for Harris, leftists are not a monolith. Therefore, the problem is with how the Harris campaign fared compared to Biden in 2020. I believe this is more likely.
Leftists had major influence, and the Democrats knowingly gambled on moving rightward. This is still a failure of the Democrats! If Leftists actually have the power claimed, then the minimum Harris could have done is run a similar campaign to Biden, not "Republican-lite."
I don’t disagree with that assessment.